


The New New Big Apple ain't so Shiny After All

by Mari_Knickerbocker



Series: Like Two Ships in the Night [3]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Canon Related, Comfort/Angst, Not Beta Read, Not Britpicked
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-03-30
Packaged: 2018-03-20 07:51:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3642462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mari_Knickerbocker/pseuds/Mari_Knickerbocker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Visiting New New York didn’t go exactly as he had planned. What with the body swap fiasco with Lady Cassandra, the leprous human test subjects and the quarantine. Really things had fallen rather spectacularly apart; even though that appeared to be their <em>modus operandi</em>. Still the Doctor owed Rose some sightseeing and touring was exactly what they planned on doing. They did not think for a moment that they might bump into a familiar face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The New New Big Apple ain't so Shiny After All

“Avery! _Avery!_ ”

“Rose what are you doing?”

“Doctor I saw Avery! Right over there,” the blonde woman told him with a manic gesture indicating a figure somewhere in the fluctuating crowd.

They were still visiting New-New-New-New-New-New-New-New-New-New-New-New-New-New-New New York (or New New York, if you’d like) the business at the hospital was all sorted out and Rose still wanted to visit the city without sharing the space in her body with Lady Cassandra. The Doctor could not in good conscious deny her that. Not after setting her up to become a victim of Cassandra’s thirst for immortality and revenge and exposing her to infection from every known disease and malady in the galaxy. He rather owed her a bit of a vacation after that one.

There are worse places to go sightseeing than New New York. Rose had never been to the New York of her time and this incarnation of the city had still kept all of the attractions that had made the 21st century version of the city famous – albeit in holographic form. Still, seeing the Statue of Liberty was seeing the Statue of Liberty and one never got over the awe it inspired no matter how many times one clapped eyes on it. (It was especially inspirational when visiting it with someone who’s only ever seen it in films or on postcards but never, until that moment, in person). Didn’t matter that the original sculpture had long since been torn down – thanks to a copper shortage some years back – and replaced with the 3D hologram that now fetched in the tourists. 

“Avery did you say?” He asked the girl craning his neck around the viewing platform at Old Battery Park.

He remembered briefly meeting the woman in his previous carnation; shortly before he was forced into reintegration by Rose taking in the time vortex during their skirmish with the Daleks. There was something about the woman that was different and he couldn’t quite place his finger on it; which made that absolutely **_fantastic!_**

“Yes I did, she’s over _there_.” Rose replied taking off in the direction she’d thought she saw the woman. He followed closely behind her.

“Are you positive that’s Avery Rose?” He asked even as he jogged along with her.

“Absolutely! I’d recognize that tawny hair anywhere.” 

That really wasn’t much to go on as far as positively identifying someone went. But he’d followed hunches to their conclusions on less information than that before. _Besides love a bit of running, always leads to something exciting. Or away from something dangerous, can never quite tell which until I’m running._

Rose was just ahead of him so she reached the woman first.

“Avery!” Rose exclaimed and the other woman turned towards her a politely confused expression on her face. The Doctor got enough of a look at her to determine that there was certainly something Avery-ish about the stranger before Rose was throwing herself at the woman for a welcoming hug.

 _“Oomph,”_ the woman breathed out in surprise. The 21st century girl wrapped her arms about the stranger (who might be Avery) tightly in a grip that wasn’t meant to be loosened. 

“Oh child, what ails ye?”

The woman certainly sounded like Avery; with a voice that was a pleasing combination of honeyed smoothness and husky secrets. Before it had not had any discernable accent but right now it was tinged with a distinctive Scottish burr like one would find back on 21st century Earth. Upon closer examination the Doctor could see that she certainly looked a great deal like the woman he remembered. Same tawny hair, only this time it was worn short in an unruly curly bob. Same physical size and sense of presence but this time instead of garments that would be appropriate in a desert market she wore clothing that was typical of a city dweller. Form fitting black jeans, red leather boots that came up to mid-calf, a gray tank top underneath a blue flannel button up and a black leather jacket. In that outfit he couldn’t see her arms so he could not tell if she had the soft pelt of glowing golden fur he recalled the previous version of Avery having. Unfortunately, he recalled, that her fur did not extend to her neck and face. Nor could he see the tip of her ears – her hair being long enough to cover them – although he could see her ear lobes and he noticed that she had multiple piercings.

But she was looking right at him, even as she held Rose in a comforting embrace, watching him as he sized her up with the same enigmatic golden eyes as before. It had been those eyes that had struck him the first time and he wasn’t surprise to find they still had the same effect on him. There was something ancient and wise about them but perhaps their most striking characteristic was an unfathomable depth of sorrow. 

Those were the same characteristics he often fancied he saw within his own brown eyes. The Doctor had the feeling that she was someone he could share his own burdens with because she’d faced similar demons. He wouldn’t have to worry about frightening her or scarring her with the weight and ugliness of his regrets because she understood the price one paid to live on whilst loved ones perished. She knew the true cost of immortality.

(It did not take a genius (and the Doctor was one of the highest caliber) to figure out that somehow in some way the woman was immortal. After all the last time they met was a good three hundred years ago and here she was barely changed – unless one was going to count aesthetic changes).

“O Avery it was just _dreadful_ they called them the ‘Flesh’ and refused to see them as human since they had cooked them up in a laboratory. They made themselves a farm for testing cures, treated the poor dears as nothing more than livestock; it was just disgusting what they did. And the worst part is they didn’t think anything was wrong. To think they called themselves _Sisters_ ,” she imbued the word with a world of scorn, “and acted like pious nuns. As if that could hide how rotten they are and the despicable things they did.”

The Doctor did not know at which point Rose had started talking – he’d gotten lost in those knowing golden orbs – but there she was pouring her heart out to Avery. He felt a twinge of jealous at that. Rose should have been able to unburden herself to him not some stranger who they’d only met once before and looked as if she was Catkind herself. _She could be the mother of the Catkind for all we know!_

“Hush now my gel,” Avery soothed. “Sometimes people lose sight of what is right and what is wrong in the pursuit of helping the greater good. It doesn’t excuse them their mistakes nor does it explain away why they did what they did. But it does help to understand why they felt the need for such extreme measures.”

“I don’t want to understand.” Rose protested stubbornly.

“Well do I know that feeling, but you are going to want to forgive them dear,” she continued in that same soothing manner. Gentling the difficult truths she spoke, “To do that you’ll have to try and understand. Certainly not all of the Sisters were guilty, surely some of them carried out their good work with no inclination of what went on behind the curtain.”

“That doesn’t make them less culpable,” the Doctor interjected, “they benefited from ill-gotten gains.”

“Don’t we all at some point?” She returned philosophically.

“Could you forgive them?” Rose asked stepping back and looking Avery in the eye.

“I don’t know child.” There was a faraway look in her eyes as if she was remembering deeds done long ago.

“Any Mother could forgive her child,” he sneered convinced that his assumption about her relationship to the Catkind was correct.

She looked at him sharply her expression undecipherable then she laughed. She tilted her head back and let loose a scornful self-loathing sound that ended in a mocking twist of her lips showing off one sharp canine. 

“You think that they and I,” she chuckled again and it was a mournful sound, “of course you do. It seems like such a logical conclusion.”

“It isn’t,” he demanded feeling tetchy. 

“No it isn’t. The Catkind are a species of humanoid cats,” she pointed out rationally, as if she was speaking to a child. A comparison that was spoiled by her still scathingly bitter tone, “Whereas I am what’s known as a _Homo superior_ ; specifically of the feral subset of that species or _Lupus sapiens_ if you’d rather be more technical about it. Hence your understandable but incorrect assumption that the Catkind and I are related,” she paused with a caustic snort, “I’ll have you know that if they had descended from a feral mutant it wasn’t as the fruit of my loins.”

“A mutant!” He exclaimed in delighted surprise, “But I thought you all had been wiped out during the Genoshain wars.”

“Yes, well I thought the Time Lords had perished along with the Daleks at the end of the Time Wars,” she snapped back, “yet here you stand.”

“Alright, pretty sure I deserved that.”

“Yes you rather did,” she agreed.

Rose watched them eyes wide uncertain as to how she should proceed. Avery visibly composed herself then smiled warmly at the girl:

“Would you care for a tour from a New New York native?”

**Author's Note:**

> I have hinted at some ideas here that aren't exactly cannon for either fandom; not even sure if they will become part of my personal head canon. I just kind of tossed them out there to see if they would work or not.


End file.
